Candidates concur on disability

It was a candidate forum unlike any other: 20 candidates, little partisanship, lots of stories of personal courage, plenty of warm applause.

Thursday night’s forum at the Heathman Lodge, sponsored by the Clark County Disability Council, brought out the best in people. And it showed that just about everyone has been touched by the challenge of living with a disability, including most of those in the audience.

Most Clark County legislative candidates took part. Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi showed up; Gov. Chris Gregoire sent a surrogate. Even volunteers for presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain made appearances.

Participants were asked to address one of the council’s 10 policy priorities, on issues from providing accessible transportation to ensuring that disabled adults will continue to have the option to live independently.

Some did. But nearly everyone had a personal story to tell.

Rossi, who sits on the board of the Special Olympics, said his support for the disabled goes back to 1996, just before he was sworn in as a freshman legislator, when advocates asked him to support a state program that let parents keep their developmentally disabled children at home.

“I said I would do everything in my power to protect their program,” he said. “When I’m elected, you will have an advocate in the state of Washington.”

‘It’s personal’

Former Democratic state Sen. Dean Sutherland, speaking for Gregoire, said the governor has increased services for the disabled by 30 percent since taking office in 2005.

“It’s personal for the governor,” he said, noting that in her youth, Gregoire spent summers helping her disabled cousin learn to read and write, and that she remains his legal guardian.

There were many such stories.

“My family has been touched by muscular dystrophy,” said Rep. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver. “It’s really about the hidden blessing of making the most of every day.”

Wallace has lost two brothers to muscular dystrophy, and her 25-year-old son also has the disabling condition. She recalled that one of her brothers visited the state capital in Olympia as a high school student and had to enter the library by a back door. Now, she said, the capital is accessible.

Wallace introduced a bill this year that would have increased the penalty for illegally parking in a disabled space, with the revenue going to support community-based programs to improve access for the disabled, such as the Clark County Disability Coalition. She said she would try again next year to get the bill passed.

“It’s amazing to hear all these stories and understand how disability has touched all of us,” said Micheline Doan, a Republican who is running against Wallace. Twenty-five years ago, her husband was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. “It has put me in the role of caregiver,” she said. “That rug can be pulled out from under you at any time.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act “is a great law, but very few people know what the law requires,” she said. “Being comfortable in your community is very important, but just because there’s a law doesn’t guarantee that the law will be enforced.”

Rep. Jaime Herrera, a Ridgefield Republican who is running for the 18th District seat to which she was appointed last year, said her view of the challenges facing the disabled deepened when her former boss, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, gave birth to a child with Down syndrome.

“It was incredibly inspiring,” she said. “I learned a lot. I want to help to make the world easier for these families.”

Herrera’s Democratic challenger VaNessa Duplessie said she grew up with a disabled mother who was unable to drive. “Dad moved on when I was 8,” she said. “We had the challenge of getting Mom to work. We had buses, we had taxis. … I want to make sure public transportation is available” for the disabled, especially in north Clark County, she said.

Meeting the requirements

Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, said he has a record of supporting programs “to allow even those with developmental disabilities to live at home in their own communities,” with respite for parent caregivers.

“We do the things the Constitution requires us to do,” Zarelli said. “We always recognize those who can’t help themselves.”

Democrat Jon Haugen, an airline pilot and Navy veteran who is running against Zarelli, noted that both his mother and his wife are nurses and that his cousin has an autistic child. He praised “early intervention to determine which children need special attention early in life.”

Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, drew applause when he said he supports tax breaks to help the disabled buy medical equipment. “I see a lot of you in mobility-enhancing equipment,” he said. “How would you like it if we got rid of the sales tax on wheelchairs?”

“Everyone in this room has firsthand experience being a problem-solver,” said Democrat Jim Jacks, who is running for an open seat in the 49th District. His mother was a firefighter and emergency medical technician, but became disabled and will eventually have to have her leg amputated. He said that hasn’t stopped her from living a full life.

“My mother has become an artist and teaches art to elementary students” he said. “Do the best you can with the cards that life has dealt you.”

Jacks also made an impassioned plea for support of early childhood education. “The most critical time is birth to about 7 years old,” he said. “We need to invest in those first critical years so we can achieve as much as we can.”

Mike Bomar, an independent who is running against Democratic Rep. Jim Moeller in the 49th, said he has worked with the building industry to promote affordable housing, including housing for an aging population. “The disabled need affordable housing,” he said. “We have the technology; we just need the leadership.”

The key to addressing the challenges facing the disabled is equal access to education at all levels, said Democrat David Carrier, an economist who is challenging Republican Sen. Don Benton in the 17th District. “We have to start at a young age and provide them with the same array of education options, and expand the same school-to-work programs,” that the nondisabled have, he said.

Presidential perspectives

Joelle Brouner, an Olympia volunteer for the Obama campaign, drew a standing ovation after she spoke from her wheelchair.

“What we want is for people with disabilities to grow up and realize their dreams,” she said. “It takes structure, it takes planning. We don’t have talent we can afford to waste any longer.”

Obama, as a former civil rights attorney, understands the issues facing the disabled, she said. He was an original sponsor of the Community Choice Act, which allows the disabled to live in communities of their choice, and is “the only candidate who has said he would appoint a special assistant to the president on disability issues.”

Margie Ferris, speaking for McCain, admitted that Brouner was a hard act to follow.

“I’m proud of John McCain,” she said. “He’s done so much for his country. I know he has a passion for the disabled.”